News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-01-06
WORKED OUT SILVER MINES.
Caverns obnoxious Gasses and shoulder
ing Fires in the ComstOck Lode.

Out of the hole in the old Bonanza
mine in the Comstock lode from which
1920, 900, 900 in ore was taken, was
packed foot of timber for every dollar
taken out" said Howard Storrs, an old
Colorado miner. ''The timber cost 3d.
400, 900 and some strange phenomena
have been produced in the dark and dis
tant caverns by the changes it has I'M
dergone. The timbers were laid in
loosely, probably two-thirds of the space
of the pits or chambers being occupied
by them, the thousands of cracks and
openings necessary in the cunduroy, as
the timber packing is called, making up
the other third. The top earth or roof
of the caverns, has fallen by degrees
upon the corduroy, and filling all the
crevices. has compressed the pile into
one solid mass. The position of these
abandoned levels may be easily discern
ed on the surface, as the crust of the
earth has yielded and sunk into the
space formerly filed by the roof of the
caverns. By this great pressure on the
timbers below, sticks twelve inches
through have been crushed to almost
half their original dimensions.
standing near some of these surface
depressions the visitor will notice a
strong smell of burning wood in the air,
but will be surprised to see no wood any
where in the vicinity. The smell comes
from the depths of those t;mber-choked
cavities where millions of treasure were
once stored. The wood has decayed,
and from it strong gases have general
ed. These gases frequently explode,
oDI hoard in Othar
where miners are at work. The explosion
sets fire to the wood, and the cavern be-
comes a smouldering and smoking fur
mace, the life of which will not be spent
for years. The smoke works its way
out upward through the porous surface
of the chamber, but seems to become in
visible on contact with the air, retaining
and distributing, however, its strong
odor. One of these smouldering sub
terranean fires covers worked out space
of l, 300 feet long and 100 wide. If by
any chance a draught of fresh air should
reach it, the resulting burst of flame
would be indescribably terrible.
1.-THE gas generated by these decaying
timbers is of the most deadly character,
and the greatest care must be taken to
confne it within its limits and supply
the working levels with the most perfect
ventilation. Air tight bulk-heads sixty
feet thick cut off the deadly chambers
from the rest of the levels. Three pow
erful air currents are constantly kept in
circulation in the COmstock mines O
of these which is carried down the Ophir
shaft and up the Consolidated Virginia
shaft, goes down to the 3,100-foot level
and takes down 20, 900 feet of air every
minute. The 2,000-f level reached
by the Union shaft, carries ~, 600 feet
minute, which goes out the old Sierra
Nevada shaft. Sixteen thousand feet of
air is taken down to he bottom of the
2, 300 foot level and up the Bonner shaft
every minute. When these currents of
90 down into the levels they are pure
and dry, but in making the passage
reach temperature of 100 and more.
Besides keeping the levels free from the
noxious gases, these currents, n be.
coming heated, absorb so much of the
moisture of the mines that they issue
from the upcast shafts in steam and car
ry out of the mines nearly 30 900 gal
Ions of water a day."